| First Reading: Psalm: Gospel: | Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18 Psalm 19:8-10, 15 Matthew 25:31-46 |
Leviticus 19:15 "You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
We are often tempted to think that we must favor the poor at the expense of the rich. I find this command interesting because, even though Jesus tells us to care for the needy, we are to judge according to righteousness. One may wonder what I am talking about. Sometimes we favor one group or another out of some attempt to remove our own sense of guilt rather than judging fairly and rightly. We then only add to the problems. The answer is not always to just give away other people's money. God calls us to righteousness as well as charity.
We must be able to "judge" with righteousness. To judge doesn't simply mean to hand our punishment. I means to decide how to handle the situations that we encounter. If someone is hungry we must handle that. But we must not take someonelse's money simply because we feel they have too much. We must judge with righteousness.
Father, help me by your Holy Spirit to judge rightly. Help me to not show favor out of my own bias and convenience, but help me to judge fairly and with you love, mercy and grace always before me.
Amen
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